featured blog posts

The imminent closure of HMP Holloway in London, the largest and most iconic women's prison in the UK, and the also notorious HMP Cornton Vale in Scotland, are big strides in the right direction. Let them be strides towards dedicated community based services that understand the realities of women's lives and can make a lasting difference to their children's lives too.

We won't rest until the man UK police have charged with the assault and rape of three women and the rape and murder of Michelle Samaraweera is extradited from India, and brought back to the UK to face justice. Now some fresh momentum has been built up around Michelle's case I hope beyond anything that this happens this year - nothing can justify why no one is yet behind bars for these horrific crimes.

Liam is 10 years old. His best friend is Lola, a miniature schnauzer. The photo above shows the two together - best mates hanging out. But Liam doesn't know where his canine playmate is right now because she was snatched by dog thieves last year. All he wants is for her to come back home, back where she belongs..

If punishment must be justified, and it must, it should be done so on the basis that morality is being restored. It is morally right and beneficial to society that people cannot get away with wrongdoing. To ensure people do not want to do wrong, weight must be given to making sure the punishment is justified on the grounds that the offender benefits to. Since deterrence did not stop them committing a crime in the first place, what would? A more moral and liberal system of punishment, surely?

To suggest that his own officers are somehow 'confused' shows contempt for them and the victims they are trying to protect. I struggle to believe that any officer conducting an investigation into allegations of childhood sexual abuse will send their file to the Crown Prosecution Service without, as Sir Bernard puts it, 'testing all the evidence'.

Keeping someone in prison costs £100 per day. If that money was used efficiently to pay for alternative forms of punishment with proven track records in countries such as Sweden, then the prison bill could easily be cut with no risk to the public.

Patricia Erdmann sits in a living room that is a shrine to her dead son Lee. Pictures of the 37-year-old on holiday, at weddings and with his five children are everywhere. She has an engraved marble memorial to him by her bed. Patricia admits to crying herself to sleep some nights. Lee was drinking in The Wellington pub on Regent Road in Salford, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of Saturday 10 September 2011. He had been laughing and joking with a man at the bar and got up to go to the toilet. The same man shot him in the back when it was turned.

The murder of a Geraldine, Shannon and Shane are not 'domestic incidents'. Burning dinner is a 'domestic incident'. Making the choice to kill your ex-partner and children are criminal acts predicated on a patriarchal culture of male entitlement and male ownership of the bodies of women and children.

If we allow the radical right to maintain their poisonous grasp on this story, the experiences of these women - their violent fight, their fears and their scars - will be left lying amongst the placards and the banners, dropped and forgotten whenever 'the mob' inevitably find something new to shout about. It's time to start writing headlines about real victims, rather than those who simply shout the loudest.

Over half of the 50 prisoners interviewed for the study reported three or more mental health problems including anxiety, depression, anger, difficulty in concentration, insomnia, and an increased risk of self-harm. Almost half of the 49 officers interviewed said that they would benefit from more mental health training and that further training should be offered.

Ultimately, though, we will only see the cultural shift we need on victim's rights when they are enshrined in a Victim's Law. This would be a powerful break with the current piecemeal approach and help tackle one of the most fundamental problems in our criminal justice system: a lack of faith among victims that they will be supported, listened to and treated fairly.

About Crime

Huff Post UK's Crime big news page brings you all the latest crime stories from around the UK.
From high-profile trials to profiles and pictures of suspects, all breaking news will be covered on the Crime page.